Breaking Tradition
by like a falling star
Summary: It's Christmas time for the gang! Loads of yummy festive fun... b/a!!
1. Happy Christmas to you, too

Author's Note: Hmm. It's three days to Christmas. This is a Christmas challenge fic issued by my friend, spiral, and probably the last Buffy fic I'll ever write. Anyway, GUESS WHAT? I love reviews!!! Thank you.  
  
  
  
  
  
Breaking Tradition  
  
By like a falling star  
  
  
  
  
  
Traditionally speaking, Christmas Day would start off with a bang. The heroine [i.e. Buffy] would be rudely woken up by her teen-angst-ridden sister [i.e. Dawn] via threats of intense bodily harm [i.e. switching her shampoo with purple food dye]. That would be followed by the heroine groggily prying open her eyes and seeing snow drifting outside her window between shafts of sunlight and realizing that 'hey! It's Christmas Day! I should wake up now so that I can spend all day prancing about in the snow between scorching my throat with hot chocolate and singing Christmas carols off-tune. Whee!'  
  
  
  
Said sister would then scream 'Merry Christmas!' and the two would squeal hysterically at the profound discovery and thunder down the stairs to the colourfully-decorated Christmas tree where they would find and ravage their brightly-wrapped presents. This would of course then be followed with a series of hugs and "Thank you, you're so sweet!"s and the baking of a couple of mince pies and so on and so forth.  
  
  
  
Ha.  
  
  
  
Hahahahaha.  
  
  
  
Firstly, Buffy Ann Summers wasn't your typical blonde-hair, blue-eyed, Christmas-relishing bimbo. No, she had blonde hair and grey eyes. Not blue.  
  
  
  
  
  
And secondly, it did not snow in Sunnydale. Not ever. Sunnydale was as sunny as its name. More. So, there was no 'snow drifting outside her window between shafts of sunlight', whatever that meant.  
  
  
  
The thing was, technically, Christmas Day did start off with a bang. Just not in the way it was expected.  
  
  
  
BANG!!!  
  
  
  
"Ow! #%$&@!" Buffy let out a stream of curses and bent down to rub the sore spot where her foot had hit the chair. "Stupid chair! What are you doing here? You shouldn't be here! Shoo!" She gave the chair a shove.  
  
  
  
Dawn came into the kitchen, rolling her eyes. "Were you and Mr. Chair here having a nice, deep conversation? Well, excuse me for interrupting, but you're hogging the muffins." She took the box of muffins out of Buffy's hand and set it on the counter. "Pick one."  
  
  
  
It was a no-brainer. Buffy grinned and plucked out a chocolate-chip muffin. "Merry Christmas to you, too." She told Dawn sarcastically, before sinking her teeth into the muffin. Mmm.  
  
  
  
"Happy Christmas," Dawn greeted automatically.  
  
  
  
"Merry Christmas!" Buffy sang again.  
  
  
  
Dawn raised her eyebrows. "All fun and perky today, aren't we? Gonna break out the Santa suit and triple tummy?"  
  
  
  
"I meant Merry Christmas, not Happy Christmas." Buffy said. "Who says 'Happy Christmas' anyway? Have you been watching Barney?"  
  
  
  
"Barney? No!" Dawn sounded indignant. "He's, like, all big. and purple. Anyway, what's the difference? 'Merry' and 'happy' mean the same thing anyway."  
  
  
  
"They don't!" Buffy wrinkled her nose, trying to remember if she'd learnt anything in English class. "Merry means all. merry-like and wow, and happy means all."  
  
  
  
"Happy-like and wow?" Dawn guessed. "Great description, Buffy."  
  
  
  
"Merry Christmas." Buffy said stubbornly.  
  
  
  
"Happy Christmas." Corrected Dawn. "By the way, your present is on the couch."  
  
  
  
Buffy was out of the room faster than. well, faster than Xander was on the trail of food.  
  
  
  
Dawn breathed a sigh of relief. Saved by the present.  
  
  
  
  
  
* 


	2. Nice place you have here

Breaking Tradition  
  
By like a falling star  
  
  
  
  
  
Traditionally speaking, Christmas morning through evening would be spent with family. After all, Christmas was a time for family get-togethers, wasn't it? Friends would just have to wait for Boxing Day. Christmas was a time for family members to be nice to one another, no matter how incredibly obnoxious the other was being. After all, Christmas was a time for forgiving and repentance and what not, wasn't it?  
  
  
  
Well, no. Not in the Summer's household, at least.  
  
  
  
"Bye, Dawn, I'm off!" Buffy chirped merrily as she strode out the door, a hefty bag of Christmas presents in hand. Even the Slayer had to take some time off, so why not during Christmas?  
  
  
  
"Bye!" Dawn said in between a mouthful of popcorn, barely taking her eyes off the flickering television screen. "Don't come back till you absolutely have to."  
  
  
  
In between juggling the bag of her friends' presents, her car keys and her cell phone, Buffy managed to level Dawn a glare. "It's Christmas; can't you even pretend to be nice for once?"  
  
  
  
"Not with you, I can't." Dawn said, without batting an eyelid. "Takes up way to much time and effort."  
  
  
  
  
  
*  
  
  
  
  
  
Traditionally speaking, Christmas was a fun and jolly season, with bright, glittering fairy lights twinkling on manicured braches and sprigs of fresh, green mistletoe strategically hung from ceilings and in doorways.  
  
  
  
If you haven't already got the gist of how the story goes, I'll tell you now: Christmas with Buffy Summers was likely to be anything but traditional.  
  
  
  
The rest of the house was fairly normal for a millionaire family, so to speak. Gleaming white walls, immaculately polished marble tiles, thick, plush red carpeting, luxurious, squashy sofas, and about twenty rooms to boot. Which is why they were caught completely off-guard, totally unprepared and horribly unawares for The Room.  
  
  
  
"."  
  
  
  
". Oz! What a.nice place you've got here!" Willow said, trying to sound enthusiastic but failing miserably.  
  
  
  
"Yeah, like, um. a really nice place." Buffy added, nodding vigorously. She wondered if those cobwebs were fake. Did Oz get nightmares sleeping in this place? "Did you, um, did you decorate it yourself?" Decorate was too fancy a word to describe it, actually.  
  
  
  
"Yeah, great, huh? The Dingoes came over one day and we had a little fun." Oz told her, gesturing at the walls, which were splashed randomly with black and red and glow-in-the-dark paint, with little splotches of white which Buffy supposed the paint must not have reached. Morbid posters of rock bands were pasted sloppily over the door and windows, with bits of curly cellotape sticking out.  
  
  
  
Buffy thanked the heavens that Oz did not dress like his room.  
  
  
  
"It's kind of like one of those little caverns where cults meet and practise voodoo and stuff," Cordelia said very tactlessly, wrinkling her nose and trying not to touch anything. Or rather, trying not to let anything touch her.  
  
  
  
Angel was very quiet, for lack of anything much to say. He pulled Buffy closer to him, as if afraid that something much reach out any moment and grab her.  
  
  
  
Xander was ecstatic. "Hey, cool!" He reached out a single finger and brushed a tangled mass of mossy green stuff smothered with sticky golden glitter glue. It was about the brightest thing in the room. "Is this the Christmas tree?"  
  
  
  
  
  
* 


End file.
